By Liza Soriano

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has assured that the Senate will pass the proposed 2024 national budget by first week or second week of December.

“Our commitment, to answer your question, we will pass it on time. We will finish it by the first week of December; I would believe it would be ready for the President’s signature, [the] latest [by] second week of December,” Zubiri said during the special joint session of both houses on Saturday.

During the joint session, the House of Representatives transmitted the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) to the upper house.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Romualdez said that it will be the decision of the Senate whether to follow the lead of the lower house in removing the confidential funds of five agencies or not.

“The ball is in our hands, ‘ika nga sa basketball, nando’n na po sa amin,” Zubiri said.

“Unfortunately, hindi na po namin nakasama ‘yong aming chairman ng committee on appropriations today so we’ll act on his behalf, si Senator Angara, he just came back from an overseas mission, but kami po ni Senator Joel Villanueva our Majority Floor Leader, at iba pong mga senador — nandito po si Senator JV Ejercito, and some other senators ay handa po tumanggap po ng final version of the House of Representatives’ 2024 national budget,” the Senate President added.

(ai/mnm)

By Junex Doronio

APPARENTLY WITNESSING THE DIFFICULTIES encountered by senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in voting on the recently-concluded Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE), House Deputy Majority Leader and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo has called for separate voting precincts for them.

The number one “senatoriable” for 2025 made the appeal on Tuesday in a post on Facebook.

“Baka naman sa susunod na eleksyon, mga PWD at seniors sa ibang classrooms na lang bumoto -kawawa kasi sila,” Tulfo said.

Tulfo has consistently topped the surveys for probable winning senatorial bets in 2025.

The former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) garnered 50% support from a total of 1,200 respondents polled between July 17 and 31 by Oculum Research and Analytics.

He topped a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey in April, Tangere in June, and OCTA Research in July.

Tulfo is also touted as the potential running mate of Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez if the latter decides to run for president in 2028.

(ai/mnm)